Friday, 23 May 2014

Welcome women's fiction writer, Ashley Mackler-Patenostro...

The only thing
Jenna Chamberland ever wanted in her life was to be a good wife and a good mom.
In death, she’ll find that she still wants the same things.

With stage-four breast cancer, a terminal diagnosis and six
months to live, Jenna fears what awaits her family after she is gone: Her
husband, Gabe, will be left to raise their daughter alone, and Mia, only seven
years old, will be forced to face a world without her mother.

Ten blank tapes to teach her daughter everything she’ll ever
need to know. Dead before Mia ever really got to know her, Jenna exists now
only in pictures and watercolored memories, and Mia finds herself struggling to
remember her mother in a way that feels real. But on the ninth anniversary of
Jenna’s death, she will return to her daughter through a series of
audiocassettes. One tape each of the milestones of Mia’s life, and with them, a
letter explaining that Mia should only listen to the tapes when the time is
right.

With the help of her mother’s long-gone voice, Mia may just
learn how to embrace the challenges and triumphs of her ever-changing life with
humor, grace and a lot of hope.

Rereleased for its second anniversary, the novel that book
bloggers have called “beautiful” and “unforgettable” returns with new content
and tapes never before read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

“Today she would untie herself
from the last filament of hope that had kept her tethered to the fight. She
would watch silently as it away like a balloon slipped from between her
fingertips. Today would be what some called the beginning of the end and others
called the long goodbye.

Gabe. She could his back, long
and warm, thought the thin cotton of his undershirt pressed against her
upper-arm as he slept beside her. He was where the story of her began, where
the chapters of her life had started to matter. Of course she wouldn’t untangle
herself from motherhood now; given the change; it was the same as imagining
herself suddenly without her sight or another comfortable, almost given,
attribute. Life without Mia was entirely unimaginable. But those childless
years they’d once had still made her heart flutter. The lilt of it, the way it
had been so simple, so easy. Now that she was facing the end, she’d become a
necromancer of the past, dredging it up just to delight in what she saw.” - The
Milestone Tapes

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Ashley Mackler Paternostro
is the author of The Milestone Tapes and the Amazon Best Selling novel In The
After. Her shorter works can be found in Holiday Wishes - An Anthology for a
Children’s Charity and on the blog ww.onepagelovestory.com Ashley lives in a
suburb of Chicago with her husband and their three dogs.

Ashley will be awarding The Book Bag, a Glass Fishing Float, a Keychain, Cassette Tape Note Cards, Mug, Paperback & a digital copy of The Milestone Tapes (US only) to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a signed copy of The Milestone Tapes to a randomly drawn host.(US ONLY)